


third-wheeler

by Anonymous



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff and Humor, Gay Panic, M/M, Mutual Pining, Prompt #FT405, Sexuality Crisis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:40:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23100358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Mark is Donghyuck’s best friend, but that doesn’t exempt him from Donghyuck's wrath when he tags along on what wassupposedto be a wonderful first date with his longtime crush. That’s just not something best friends do.Yeah, Mark better have a good explanation, or Donghyuck’s going to do something unspeakably horrible to him. Something unspeakably horrible that he still hasn’t come up with yet, but he digresses. The point is, good best friends don’t crash dates.(Donghyuck doesn't even entertain the idea that they actually might like the same girl.)
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 6
Kudos: 215
Collections: 99' ft 00' fic fest, Anonymous





	third-wheeler

**Author's Note:**

> [PROMPT #FT405] to the prompter of this fic, i really hope you enjoy it!

“I can’t believe we all never hung out together sooner,” Yeri says with her usual blissfully oblivious cheer. Donghyuck side-eyes Mark balefully, wondering how his supposed-to-be dream date turned into this awkward three-man social.

“Yeah,” Mark responds, his voice strained. “It’s cool that we could all hang out today.”

“Totally cool,” Donghyuck echoes, staring down at Mark’s untied shoelaces. Now would probably be a good time to make fun of them like he normally does, but the atmosphere is far too strained to say anything else. And he’s willing to bet his bottom dollar that Yeri doesn’t even know what’s going on.

“So what did you two say was on the itinerary today? A brunch together?”

Donghyuck nods almost sullenly. It was _supposed_ to be a cute brunch date at the café around the corner with just him and Yeri, but for reasons still unknown to him, _Mark_ showed up, too.

“Let’s go inside,” Mark suggests, as if he’s the one who chose the location. Which, by the way, is totally untrue because this is _Donghyuck’s_ date with his dream girl, and he absolutely does not need a third person tagging along. Of course, he doesn’t voice this thought aloud because it seems Yeri is under the impression that they’re all hanging out as friends, but boy, would he love to. It’s not that Donghyuck has anything against Mark personally—but the guy’s literally crashing his date, so Donghyuck thinks he has the right to be irritated.

There’s a long line once they get inside, which in hindsight, is to be expected on a Saturday at eleven o’clock. Since Yeri is still expecting brunch, Donghyuck decides that he’ll go along with whatever she’s thinking, even if it’s just a friend date now with her and a tagalong. He was over the moon yesterday after Yeri had said yes when he asked her out, but he wonders now if she actually thought he was asking in a romantic way. How did Mark get invited, anyway?

Thankfully, Donghyuck is granted a moment where he can finally interrogate the other boy when nature calls for Yeri. “I’m going to go to the bathroom,” Yeri says. “Be right back!” The moment Yeri is out of earshot, Donghyuck yanks on Mark’s sleeve. “What are _you_ doing here?” he hisses. Mark may be one of his best friends, but that doesn’t mean Donghyuck wants him to crash his _date._

“I was about to ask _you_ that, man,” Mark says with a scowl. “I’m pretty sure this was supposed to be a date. _My_ date. With Yeri.”

Donghyuck, for once, is absolutely appalled. _His_ date? What the fuck? “You never told me you liked Yeri,” he says accusingly, jabbing his finger into Mark’s chest. “And when the fuck did _you_ ask her out? Because I asked her out on Thursday.”

“I asked her out on Thursday, too,” Mark says slowly. And of course he did, because the universe just really loved them both, didn’t it? What kind of shitty otherworldly power would make them both ask out the same girl on the same day? Donghyuck would accuse him of lying if he didn’t know full well that Mark didn’t have a single dishonest bone in his body—scout’s honor and all that. “Hold on, you never told me you liked Yeri either!”

“You never asked,” comes Donghyuck’s peevish response. “I never really asked you about your crush either, though. Guess we’re both paying the price for it now.”

They’re both stewing in awkward silence by the time Yeri makes it back from the restroom, but she doesn’t seem to notice it. Once they finally get to their table and order food, Mark and Donghyuck remain near silent while Yeri carries the conversation. “College apps are way too much work,” Yeri laments. “I’m nowhere near smart enough for these schools! And why are there so many essays? Am I really supposed to do all this on top of SAT prep and AP assignments? Kind of wish I wasn’t such a procrastinator.”

Donghyuck, being a year below them, honestly can’t relate and is very glad he can’t. Though he and Mark are barely a year apart, Mark got shunted with the older class simply because he was a summer baby and his preschool teachers deemed it so. Once upon a time, he and Donghyuck were in the same preschool class; that was actually how they met.

Back to his point. Being a habitual procrastinator himself means that he’ll probably experience the same exact thing Yeri is currently going through next year, which will certainly not be a pleasant experience. Mark, on the other hand, _would_ be able to relate if he hadn’t already finished submitting his college applications as soon as they opened up _and_ scored within his target SAT and ACT range. Donghyuck would know, considering Mark flaked on him multiple times to work on college essays or test prep in the past year. On top of that, the guy was also thriving in all of his AP courses. Of course, being the tactful person he is, Mark doesn’t open his mouth to tell Yeri that. Donghyuck doesn’t say anything either. The two of them let her prattle on without a word until their food arrives.

She’s really cute right now, Donghyuck thinks. He didn’t get the opportunity to appreciate her outfit earlier due to the shock of seeing Mark, but he’s got all the time in the world now.

Mark also looks really good today—probably because he wanted to impress Yeri. Donghyuck doesn’t know how impressed Yeri is, but he can definitely say _he’s_ mildly impressed. If he wasn’t so pissed that Mark was here, he might’ve voiced it aloud.

He averts his eyes quickly before Mark catches him staring, opting to pick at his meal. The “date” soon comes to an end, as Yeri has obligations that afternoon, leaving Mark and Donghyuck alone to The Impending Awkward Conversation: 2nd Edition, as Donghyuck dubs it in his head.

“Do you, uh,” Mark starts hesitantly, “want to get some ice cream?”

Donghyuck, who has nothing better to do anyway, nods. “Sure. The place near the pet store?”

“Yeah.”

The walk to the ice cream parlor is in relative silence—a surprisingly comfortable silence considering their situation.

Neither of them seem to want to mention the elephant in the room. Not that Donghyuck particularly wants to—they both got their points across in that conversation when Yeri was otherwise preoccupied in the bathroom. So they both had crushes on Yeri. Donghyuck doesn’t know where they’d fall with the bro code if neither of them was aware that the other had a crush on _their_ crush.

Mark probably still wants to pursue Yeri, too, which is completely understandable, in Donghyuck’s opinion. That doesn’t mean he’ll back off, though; he’s gotten _this_ far and isn’t about to call it quits now—not when he’s finally built up the courage to ask Yeri out, all her misunderstandings aside.

Mark buys the both of them ice cream, and they eat it in relative peace—at least, until it’s disrupted by a scoop of ice cream falling onto Mark’s lap because the idiot leans in too close to him while they’re watching their favorite music videos on the tiny screen of Donghyuck’s phone. They were using Mark’s old wired Apple earbuds because Mark’s rich boy AirPods were charging at home, and Donghyuck didn’t have earbuds on him at the moment, so the wired ones had to suffice. The close proximity bothered Donghyuck more than it should have, though he refrained from voicing that particular thought aloud. His cheeks were warm, and Mark’s hand was on his knee. Donghyuck didn’t have the heart to tell Mark to move it.

He’s so fidgety that his momentary surprise at the falling scoop of ice cream causes him to propel backwards on the flimsy metal chair, which makes _him_ fall backwards with his chair. It’s only Mark’s stupidly fast reflexes that catch Donghyuck’s chair before it hits the ground, even though the guy somehow couldn’t use those reflexes to save his damn ice cream. “You good?” Mark asks, and Donghyuck can’t do anything other than nod.

They end up parting ways because Mark needs a change of clothes, and Donghyuck needs to get home to finish a history essay, anyway. Donghyuck tries to pretend he isn’t disappointed.

  
  


Yeri is calling him, and Donghyuck can’t help the excitement he feels. “Hyuck!” Yeri greets cheerfully. “Are you busy tomorrow?”

Oh my god, Donghyuck thinks. She’s going to do it. She’s going to ask him on a _date._ This is the moment he’s been waiting for since freshman year. “Nope! I’m free,” he says with as much nonchalance as he can force—which is to say, not actually very much.

He can practically hear Yeri’s grin from the other end. “Great!” she exclaims. “Mark said he was, too. We should all go to the arcade tomorrow!”

“Uh, sure!” Donghyuck says, his voice full of synthetic pep. He can't really say he expected anything less, considering their previous failure of a date—if it could even be called one, at that point. It looks like Yeri truly is under the impression that he invited her to hang with him and Mark the first time. “I can’t wait!”

“Awesome! Are you good with 1:00 PM?”

“That's fine by me,” Donghyuck responds, mentally reminding himself to finish the history essay he _still_ hasn’t finished before going tomorrow. He wonders if Mark is on board with all of this, too. Did Mark intend for Donghyuck to go on this escapade as well? If he didn’t, it isn't like it matters; Donghyuck will still go just to spite him. It really is what he deserves for crashing Donghyuck’s rightful date with Yeri.

There’s some background noise from the other end, and Yeri hurriedly apologizes and says she has to go. Donghyuck waves off her apology—well, waves it off as best as he can considering neither of them can see each other—and bids her goodbye.

The history essay stays untouched in Donghyuck’s excitement at the opportunity to spend time with Yeri, though the emotion is the slightest bit dampened at knowing Mark will also be in attendance. Mark doesn’t even _like_ arcades, and Yeri is saying it’s _his_ idea? Does he want to impress Yeri that badly? On that note, Donghyuck thinks he’ll pack the deck of Uno cards Mark left behind during one of their hangouts so that the poor guy isn’t _too_ bored at the arcade on the off chance that he either:

  1. is not entertained by any of the machines, or the second equally likely phenomenon,
  2. the arcade is packed with children hogging said machines, meaning that the wait time for the machines will likely not be worth it—especially when they still have to pay to use the machines, regardless of the wait time.



To be fair, arcades aren’t really Donghyuck’s thing either. He might end up hanging out at the Dance Dance Revolution machines for maybe a good half-hour until he’s tired. Honestly, he’d much prefer a karaoke bar to an arcade—and he’s about 85% sure Mark would say the same.

Donghyuck spots Mark standing near the arcade entrance, Yeri nowhere in sight. “Hyuck,” Mark says, eying him placidly upon his arrival. “You’re here.”

“That I am,” responds Donghyuck, almost cheekily, though he’s slightly off-put by the lack of Yeri’s presence. By the look on Mark’s face, she hasn’t arrived yet. She’ll probably be there soon; after all, Yeri _is_ known to be quite punctual. “Missed me?”

Mark doesn’t look terribly angry, though his lip is curled in slight irritation. It looks less passive-aggressively hostile and more innocuously pouty—almost like an expression one would see on a petulant child. “We literally saw each other yesterday.”

“That we did!” The false cheer comes easily. Yeri probably wouldn’t detect it, but Donghyuck knows Mark is well aware of it. Mark notices _everything._ Donghyuck tosses him the Uno deck, and Mark catches it impulsively. “So. What’s the plan?” Donghyuck asks. Mark doesn’t respond, leading Donghyuck to believe he doesn’t really _have_ one. “Come on, man, you gotta have _some_ idea.”

Mark shrugs, though Donghyuck can still sense his buzzing nerves. “It’s been years since I’ve stepped foot in an arcade. The only thing I remember is Guitar Hero.”

“Well, they definitely still have that,” Donghyuck says with a snort. “Come on, Markie, let’s go in.”

“Wait, but—what about Yeri?”

“She’ll be able to find us in there, no problem! And I can text her. Or you can. I don’t think it matters who does it.” Donghyuck tacks on the last sentence as an afterthought, just in case Mark gets any ideas about whether Donghyuck’s trying to swoop in and steal his _girl_ or whatever. He isn’t—right now, at least. “Bet you I’ll beat your ass in Guitar Hero.”

Mark’s eyes narrow. “You’re on.”

Yeri ends up finding the two already inside the arcade squabbling over whether Donghyuck was a _filthy, dirty cheater, you literally held my wrist hostage because you were losing!_ She is very clearly amused by their antics, and Donghyuck’s just glad that at least _someone_ is entertained by his endless wit and charm.

The three of them then take turns on the DDR machines, Donghyuck getting the highest score between the three. He gloats about it for a little bit before realizing that Yeri would probably be into someone humbler, but then realizing _again_ that they’ve been friends for so many years it probably doesn’t matter. He continues to relish in his victory—in good nature, of course.

Mark ends up buying him a cookie for winning. It tastes like triumph, but he splits it into three because he is _very_ generous, thank you. As it’s starting to get late, Yeri apologizes because she has to go yet again and thanks them for the fun time they had at the arcade. Donghyuck hates to admit it amidst the _we have a crush on the same girl_ confusion, but it was honestly the most fun he’s had in ages. Mark seems to share a similar sentiment.

“We should all hang out next weekend, too,” Yeri exclaims, beaming. “Maybe we can go to the movie theater!”

“That sounds nice,” Mark agrees, and Donghyuck nods in acquiesce.

Yeri suggests a horror movie, which Donghyuck internally blanches at because he never got around to telling her that he was a wuss when it came to horror movies. Mark shoots Donghyuck a weird look, probably because he has witnessed firsthand what Donghyuck looks like during a horror movie: burrowed into the couch like a coward while Mark tries to coax him out of the cushions—laughing all the while, the good-for-nothing asshole. After that fiasco, they concurred to implement a _no horror movies_ rule for their movie nights. It’s been a while since one of those has happened, though.

Though if Yeri likes horror movies, Donghyuck isn’t about to rain on her parade. “Yep, I can definitely do that!” he agrees. “Is Friday evening good with you guys?”

Mark nods in affirmation, and Yeri grins. “Alrighty! Guess we have a date!”

Donghyuck absolutely knows she means it in a friendly way, and that only makes it smart more. It’s a constant reminder of his failure to successfully ask her out, though he doesn’t know if he can do it in good nature anymore knowing that Mark likes her, too. They part ways once again, and Donghyuck is so distracted while writing his history essay that it’s an almost unintelligible conglomeration of words. His history teacher will just have to deal, because he’s having a _crisis._

The week cannot end fast enough, but as soon as school ends on Friday, Donghyuck flops into bed and takes a quick cat nap—or what was _supposed_ to be a quick cat nap as he wakes up and looks at his alarm clock in horror, realizing he only has five minutes to change. Miraculously, he arrives as per their agreed time, and unsurprisingly, Mark is there first again. “What’s up, Mark,” Donghyuck salutes.

“About time you showed up.” Mark fist-bumps Donghyuck’s shoulder. It doesn’t hurt at all.

“I showed up right on time!” Donghyuck squawks in protest. “You just arrive absurdly early!”

Yeri, once again, is nowhere to be seen, but the answer to Donghyuck’s almost-query comes when Mark’s phone starts ringing. The caller is Yeri. Mark answers, but he puts the phone on speaker for Donghyuck’s benefit. “Yeri, hey,” Mark greets. “The phone’s on speaker. Is something up?”

Yeri apologizes profusely, citing that her one of her babysitting clients had an emergency so she had to babysit their kids tonight despite the short notice. “I’m really sorry that I can’t make it tonight! You two should go watch the movie without me.”

Since they’re already here, they might as well. Thankfully, the tickets for the horror movie currently showing haven’t been bought yet, so now, they don’t _have_ to see the horror movie—or rather, Donghyuck doesn’t, and Mark won’t care either way. They end up watching a romcom, which Donghyuck much prefers to horror.

The movie itself is great, and the outcome of watching said movie is far better than if they actually went through with watching the horror movie. The whole event is actually… kind of like a _date,_ Donghyuck realizes, much to his dismay. And he’s genuinely _enjoying_ it. Mark even bought him _popcorn_ when Donghyuck paid for their tickets, which were supposed to be in repayment for the cookie and ice cream last week.

Mark’s so stupidly chivalric, and Donghyuck _hates_ it. He had been having a crisis about whether or not it was within the bro code to pursue the same girl as his bro, but Mark sure doesn’t feel like a _bro_ right now. Great. Is he having a sexuality crisis on top of the whole bro code crisis? Is that even possible? Did the universe have to curse him with crushes on _both_ of his best friends? And lastly, is Mark even _into_ guys? Well, Donghyuck sure doesn’t want to find out through _rejection._ Maybe he’s better off not knowing.  
  


He doesn’t receive an answer to the last question until all three of them are at Mark’s house playing games, and Yeri speaks up after a particularly heated game of Uno (with Mark’s dog-eared deck of cards, of course).

“I really appreciate you two inviting me to hang out,” she says with a laugh, “even if I did feel like a third wheel at times.”

Donghyuck exchanges a quizzical glance with Mark. Did she really feel that way during their outings? It was Mark and Donghyuck who were battling to get out of the third wheel position between them and Yeri. If anything, wouldn’t one of them be the third wheel? “I’m really sorry if we made you feel excluded, Yeri! We didn’t intend to make you feel that way at all,” Mark apologizes hurriedly.

“Oh, no, it’s not like you two could help it,” Yeri replies, waving it off. “I really don’t blame you. It’s not like I could expect _not_ to third wheel a couple.”

“A _what.”_ Donghyuck’s voice is absolutely flat, his voice, for once, devoid of intonation. Maybe he didn’t hear her correctly.

“You guys…” Yeri glances between them in confusion. “Aren’t you two dating?”

Mark promptly bursts into a full-body flush, his ears especially red. “We—I—what? We—we’re not dating!” he denies defensively. Quite frankly, Donghyuck’s a little insulted at the vehemence of Mark’s denial. The idea of dating Donghyuck can’t be _that_ bad. He also knows for a fact that Mark isn’t a homophobe, so it can’t be that either. He refuses to think that Mark truly is that repulsed by the idea of dating him.

Yeri frowns. “Oh. I thought you two were dating and trying to keep it on the down-low or something. You’ve always been so close.”

Awkwardly, Donghyuck clears his throat. “Yeah, we’re not, uh, dating. We’re just… friends.” It’s very strange to have one of your crushes believe that you’re dating your other crush, he thinks.

“I mean,” Mark looks up at Donghyuck with an unreadable expression, “unless last week was a date.”

Donghyuck freezes. “Did you, uhm,” he starts cautiously, “consider it a date?”

“...Maybe?” Mark sounds very uncertain, though Donghyuck honestly can’t blame him. “Did you?”

“Only if you did,” Donghyuck says, because he in no way is about to admit that he went through an entire sexuality crisis after the aforementioned date.

“I’m going to get a drink of water,” Yeri says, like the horrible person she is, and exits the room. Donghyuck can only look up at her helplessly before turning his gaze back to Mark, who can’t meet his eyes.

Well, Donghyuck thinks, if he doesn’t leave Mark’s house with a second date planned, he’ll be very disappointed.


End file.
